Holland football rebuilding starts with loss to Caledonia

The rebuilding effort has begun for the Holland High School football team.

Despite the lopsided, 35-0 score against Caledonia at Hope College's Ray and Sue Smith Stadium on Thursday night, the Dutch defense stood tall at times and forced turnovers from a perennial playoff team.

The rebuilding effort has begun for the Holland High School football team.

Despite the lopsided, 35-0 score against Caledonia at Hope College's Ray and Sue Smith Stadium on Thursday night, the Dutch defense stood tall at times and forced turnovers from a perennial playoff team.

First year coach Andrew Pratley has his work cut out for him, but can take respite in his defense’s three forced turnovers.

“From the start, our defense wanted to set a tone that we were going to play physical defense this year, and I thought they played well,” Pratley said. “Thirty-five points doesn’t sound that good, but I know they played a great game and I’m proud of what they did.”

From the outset Holland’s offense looked out of sync as three straight rushing attempts couldn’t muster a first down. The Dutch defense got the ball back, and junior standout running back Elroy Payne began to move the chains for Holland.

With four minutes to go in the first, Holland quarterback Mason Rosado lobbed the ball up down the right sideline to Brandon Almanza. The pass ended up floating into the arms of Fighting Scots cornerback, Jalen Burton.

The Fighting Scots then needed just six plays to go 62 yards capped by a 22-yard touchdown run by Burton.

On the following possession, the Dutch completed a long pass to Almanza to get into Fighting Scots territory. The next play, quarterback Wade Buckman couldn’t handle a low snap, and Eddie Kelly picked it up to run it 53 yards for Caledonia’s second touchdown.

In the second quarter, both teams were plagued by turnovers. During the span of 30 seconds, the Fighting Scots fumbled twice and Holland did once.

Turnovers didn’t hurt Holland as much as loosing Payne to a left arm injury midway through the second quarter.

“We’re not where we need to be offensively,” Pratley said. “The kids behind (Elroy) need to step up and hopefully he comes back from that injury.”

The second half score was just 14-0 in favor of Caledonia, but in the second half, Holland’s offense couldn’t generate any scoring drives to get into the red zone.

“I’m proud of their effort,” Pratley said. “They battled for four quarters and we just couldn’t get anything going on out offense.”

Holland tallied 333 yards of offense led by Brandon Davis’ 55 yards on the ground.